Five years ago this month, Arancino at The Kāhala opened adjacent to the hotel valet. It created a buzz with its fine-dining vibe, a prix fixe menu starting at $85 (and taking hours to finish), a sommelier-created wine list and a dress code that required men to wear shoes. While much has remained—the wine list is still impeccable and much of the dress code still stands—a lot has changed with this family-run restaurant.

For one, the restaurant added à la carte items including fresh house-made squid-ink pasta with a slew of seafood in a spicy tomato sauce ($35) and a risotto prepared tableside in a 40-pound wheel of Parmigano Reggiano ($22). And, more recently, the restaurant’s resident pizzaiolo Antonino Fotia became certified by the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, which was founded in 1998 to preserve the art of Neapolitan pizza-making. Fotia is the first and only certified pizzaiolo in Hawaiʻi.